Tuesday, October 21, 2008

23 Years, 4 Months, and 20 Days

On the night of August 26th, 2008, Michael Harrington was working a typical shift at Papa John's. On what would have probably been his last delivery of the night, at around 8 o'clock, it happened. While traveling North on 3rd sttreet back to Papa John's, a young lady traveling South on 3rd street decided she wanted to begin traveling East on Grand Avenue. That is when the the fates of Michael Harrington and the young lady collided, along with their vehicles.

Fortunately, both owners had insurance coverage, so it was up to the policeman and the individual insurance companies to decide who was at fault. Of course, there was confilicting versions as to what actually happened that night. The young lady claimed that she had a yellow left hand turn signal, while Mr. Harrington claimed he had a full-blown green light. This resulted in a search for witnesses. After talking to a few eye witnesses, including one young man at the Grand Avenue Pizza pizza shop locatated at the corner of the intersection, things started to lean in Mr. Harrington's favor. The policeman later issued the young lady a left turn violation, and went on his way.

When Mr. Harrington was questioned about the witnesses, he replied,

"At first I was a little concerned about the policeman questioning an employee of the competition. I felt that somehow, someway, this wasn't going to end up working in my favor, but I'm very happy that it did. You can have your suspitions of the accident report. Call it whatever you want, Pizza-Bias, the understanding of the situation of someone else in the pizza business, or just dumb luck. Whatever the case, the young man at Grand Avenue does nothing but exemplify the pure character of those in the business. That being said...keep supporting your local pizza shop, if it's not Papa John's, then it better be Grand Avenue Pizza."

Mr. Harrington has now been through 5 cars in his 7 years of driving. The chance that he will break his 23+ year accident-free record is likely, especially if the record is reduced to the amount of time he alone has been driving. The chance that he will be through another 5 cars in the next 7 years, however, is much less likely.

When asked if this accident has caused him to reconsider working at Papa John's, Mr. Harrington replied,